Strangers in the Woods
by crazykelsmiles
Summary: Set after MR4, Max and Flock are on the next mission, they meet strangers with secrets of their own. People whose destinies and entwined with the flocks, forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I'm not James Patterson, I Don't own Maximum Ride or any of the characters besides the ones I Have made up. **

Chapter 1

3rd Person

Three strangers waked the woods. They were there for a reason.

(Flashback)

"Maximum Ride will be terminated." A voice sounded from one of the detention centers two of the three strangers were sent to.

"No, I will not do it." The girl, the younger of the two answered, speaking for both.

"You will, you will have no choice in the matter," the voice answered shortly, cutting off from the speakers which were in every corner of their room. The girl shuddered and the boy held her, kissed her forehead, he wasn't mute he was just afraid, afraid of being overheard or saying something wrong to the girl. Silence was golden, except with the girl who loved it when the boy talked.

(End Flashback)

Now the strangers were joined with a third, a child merely harmless, in people's eyes, defenseless. The child was anything but defenseless.

Max's POV

_Wake up, _my voice ordered me urgently.

_Ah, Voice it's been awhile, don't you think? _

_Maximum, don't start people are near. _Shit that made me tense; I looked around my sleeping flock. Nudge and Angel were to my left with Total sleeping silently at Angel's feet. To my left were Iggy and Gazzy. Fang even though I couldn't see I knew he was across from me with his back to me, he had last watch. _Tell Fang, Alert him._ The Voice ordered, oh you didn't know I had a voice in my head? Well surprise! Don't you have too? No? Okay, well I'm cool. Not, mine is a pain in the ass. It hardly ever answers any direct questions. Which is why we were sleeping here, in the woods, in the dark, and none of us knew where we were, I just had the voice guiding me and me leading the other five (and Total of course).

"Fang," I said in hardly a whisper, I had no idea where he was then all of a sudden there he was in front of me. Was he watching me?

"What?" He asked, looking directly into my eyes. There was no light, his features were darker than usual, and even though he was so close to me I couldn't see his eyes very well. His black hair was covering his eyes, it was getting long again. I kinda liked it. _Stop it Max!_ I ordered myself. Ever since I told Fang I loved him, things have been kind of weird, he's kissed me a couple times, but he's never said it back. I think he just likes toying with my emotions, because when we were living with Anne- shudder- he kissed Red Head Wonder, and when he went to Antarctica he made goo goo eyes at Brigid Dwyer.

"The voice says someone's coming." I said calmly.

"Great," He muttered sarcastically, "Who do you want to wake up first?"

"Iggy and Angel," I said, he nodded. I leaned over and tapped on Angel's small hand twice, she woke up silently, like she'd been taught. In my peripheral vision I saw Fang had done the same with Iggy.

_Angel, the voice says people are coming, so see if you can pick up anything. _I thought; I could feel Angel probing around my head for answers.

I moved over silently so I was in Iggy's face, I saw Fang's expression harden. Whatever. "Ig, listen closely, do you hear anything, _anybody?"_ I whispered to him emphasizing the word anybody. By the time either of them could answer me it was to late. The strangers where there at the base of our line, looking at us with interest. I felt adrenaline course through my veins as I braced for a fight. Nudge and Gazzy were woken up by Fang; they stood up, all the flock understanding my tense stance, braced for a fight as well.

**Well I hope you like it, this is my first FanFic. Review Please! Anything just review, criticism is welcomed. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Max," said one of the strangers, it stepped forward, Total growled at my feet, acting like a dog for once, the other shadow melted away into the darkness it was just me and this figure.

"How do you know my name?" I growled, keeping my footing as I stared at the silhouette in front of me.

"That's a long story, I apologize for scaring you-" the figure started but I cut it off.

"First of all you didn't scare us!" I said, well almost shouted, my temper getting the best of me.

"No need to bring a attitude into this, should I say rather, we're sorry for "surprising" you," it continued I could just hear the quotation marks over surprising, "but we pose no threat to you, your fl-family is about double or triple the size of mine, depending how you look at it." I could just hear the smile on the voice.

"There are only two of you?" I said, and I started seeing things, the sun was rising.

"Yes, well two and a half" The voice laughed I could tell it was a feminine voice, high pitched and the laugh was truly bubbly.

"Where is the other? Or others." I asked, truly curious, I didn't see anyone else, but then again I didn't exactly look away from the figure, that I could assume was female.

"They're here, somewhere, Kai was frightened so Terry took him somewhere, your quite intimidating." The figure said it was definitely female; the sun was rising fast today I could see her almost clearly; I looked away from her for a second looking around, wondering where the other person went. About fifty feet away I saw one or was it two figures by a big hulking tree.

"Your story seems to fit about your group. Now what you big story?" I asked, tense once more.

"Now?" She asked, and all of a sudden she whirled around and walked slowly to other figures, she bent down and picked something or someone up. She turned back to us, began walking towards us, the last figure, the biggest by a lot must have said something because she turned back toward it. I looked down at Angel, _heard anything?_ I asked her silently. She shook her head, the girl turned towards us suddenly like we called her, reminding her that we were there. She walked over towards us again with new determination. She stopped a feet away from us, and stood calmly, dirt rose around her from her fast walk. I could see clearly now, the girl looked about my age, more or less. I began taking her in; she got this impassive look on her face. I looked at the thing on her hip, when I though _thing_ her face became furious, I didn't look at her but I saw in my peripherals, the thing I realized the thing on her hip was a baby! I looked up at her with confusion, her expression melted from mad back to stone-like. She was pretty, she had nice features, her complexion looked like Fang's expect lighter almost yellow. Her eyes were dark, but they didn't look brown. _I hope Fang doesn't find her pretty too._ I though, then I chided myself for caring. Her expression turned smug like she could hear my thoughts.

"You don't have to explain yourself now," I said, looking at the baby, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Boy, his name is Kai, he's my little brother." She said, matter-of-factly. I gaped, they hardly looked alike-but similar somehow- the little boy was scary pale, paler than Iggy, with black hair and blue eyes. "Can you hold him for me please?" I nodded. She turned around and walked back to the figure than was now just a mere shadow by the tree. I turned towards my flock, I could tell my expression was surprised, all of theirs mirrored mine, with the exception of Fang, and of course Total.

"Anything?" I asked Angel even before she replied I knew the answer.

"No, it's just like when I first saw Jeb at The School, it's like she's dead, no body's home. But I am getting something from the boy over there." Angel said nodding towards the boy who had now semi come out of the shadows but I couldn't see him all that well because he was mostly in the shadows still. The girl was talking to the boy, we were all watching her now, and even Fang who was usually emotionless had a look of curiosity on his face. I watched Fang, he must have sensed my gaze because he slid he tore his eyes away from the shadows and looked at me, silently, intensely, and I felt the skin on my face getting hotter as neither of us looked away. Then the next thing I knew the baby, Kai smacked me on the head and reached his arms towards Fang and made it look like he wanted to go him. Fang cracked one of his rare smiles and chuckled slightly to himself.

"Fang? You want to hold um, Kai?" I asked him, with my eyebrows raised as if challenging him to hold the small child.

"Sure," he said simply and held his arms out as he received the child. Kai- who was happy with the new pair of arms that cuddled him- started playing with Fang's hair pulling at it and putting it in his mouth, giggling to himself. Fang didn't seem to mind at all, he actually seemed to be enjoying himself; I turned to make a smart ass comment to my flock about if anyone had a camera, and I didn't expect them to be watching Fang and Kai as intently as I was but there they were watching him with a mix of curiosity, awe, and shock (expect for Iggy who was as lost as ever but he was looking in the general direction of Fang, with confusion on his face.). I turned back to Fang who was playing with the baby, tickling him and blowing on the child's stomach which sent Kai into hysterics. I turned quickly to look at the two strangers- the boy and the girl- still in the shadows, by the girl's taut form and the way she was throwing her arms around, it looked like they were arguing but they were just out of our hearing range for me to eavesdrop, but on hearing Kai's echoing laughter she turned to look at us with wide staring eyes. I saw vaguely the boy's lips move, she closed her eyes and sighed visibly, clenching her hands into fists. The boy saw her fists and he shook with laughter and stepped closer to her and bent down and hugged her close to him. He swayed a little like trying to loosen her up, and kissed the top of her head; she looked up at him, and went up on her tippy toes and kissed him softly, until her feet couldn't handle it anymore, so he bent down so he was kissing her. I looked away from the couple feeling as if I was intruding on their intimate moment.

I looked at the ground, silently envying the girl's relationship with the boy, Terry she called him. I wished Fang and I could have that. _You have to tell him then_, Angel said pushing her thoughts into my mind, I sighed and turned to look at Fang. He was staring at me again, his eyes flicked to the couple and mine 

did too. They were in the middle of a full out make out session, the girl had her back against the big tree, and the boy's arms where on each side of her head, he had his head bent to get a better angle of her lips. I looked away once more and back into Fang's dark eyes which Kai was trying to poke with his stubby little fingers. Fang's expression was unreadable and finally Kai, settled down putting his little head in the crook of Fang's neck, and sighed contently. _Damn, I wish that was me, _I though referring to the baby and being in his older sisters position. _Wait what am I thinking?! _I thought angrily at myself_, Fang was my best friend not my boyfriend._

_Would you be happy if I told you Fang wishes you would let him do what Terry is doing to Riley? _Angel so happily supplied me with the thought. My head snapped to Fang, I was confused but he didn't seem to be watching me, he was watching the baby, stroking Kai's head shushing him, patting his back, putting him to sleep I realized. Fang looked back up at me, for once not hiding his emotions; he looked happy, really happy. He seemed at ease holding the child.

I turned to look at the couple, they were coming towards us, the girl in front but her arm was behind her holding the boy's hand, his head was facing the ground so we didn't get a good look at his face. The sun was fully raised now I gasped inwardly; the girl wasn't just pretty she was gorgeous. Her hair was wild, dark and curly. Her hair color wasn't like Fang's, because Fang's was a deep black like an oil slick that looked like it had purple in it when he was in the sun but in the sun the girl's hair was black with varying shades of brown mixed in, it went all the way down far past her waist. I was right about her eyes, they weren't brown they were a dark shade of green with brown around the pupil. Her lips were a pale pink and full. It took me a while to realize how small she was, at 5'8 I towered over her. I realized she was shorter than the boy when they were by the tree, I just thought that was the boy was extremely tall, glancing up at him, he only stood a few inches over Iggy and Fang, I still hadn't seen his face, his body was facing my flock and I, but the top of his torso was turned, watching something in the sky. The girl was thin but not like us, she was smaller, thinner than we were, her face was angular but soft, feminine.

"Well, since we're all here I guess we should do introductions," she said, looking up at me for conformation, sensing that I was leader, one again.

I nodded, agreeing, "I'm Max, that's Fang, Igg-" I began but she cut me off.

"Max- the leader, Fang: Mr. Emotions," She sniggered at this, "Iggy; the cook, Nudge; Ms. Motor-mouth," Riley smiled at Nudge warmly, and Nudge ducked her head, embarrassed, "The Gasman aka Gazzy; no comment needed, and Angel; the baby, the mind reader," She said looking at us pointedly as she said each of our names in turn. But with Angel she just lifted one eyebrow, challenging her to say something. I was beginning to get spooked, she smiled warming, reassuringly. "I'm Riley, this is Terry," She said turning to the boy and smiling hugely, the boy looked up shyly, hesitating and finally he lifted his head up the whole way. Nudge, Angel and I all gasped. The boys didn't because well Fang is Fang and Iggy can't see and Gazzy is always trying to be like Fang. The boy, had a long scar going from the left side of his straight nose, it snaked across his cheek 'til his cheek bone then shot down his face, down his jaw, down his neck, and down the collar of his shirt. But that wasn't the reason we gasped, or the fact that the scar didn't have one jagged edge, it was smooth, it curved when it went up his cheek then 

straight when it went down. No that wasn't the reason either; it was because this boy was just a beautiful as the girl even with the scar. His brown hair wasn't dull like what happened with a lot of people who have brown hair, it wasn't limp it was long and slightly wavy. His eyes which were a shocking color, they were blue with a pale green around the centre with yellow closest to the pupil. His lips were full also, like Riley's. The last thing I noticed about him -at the time- was that he was pale just like baby Kai.


End file.
